Winter Squash Pimenton Preserved Lemon Soup Recipe

Winter Squash Pimenton Preserved Lemon Soup makes a beautiful presentation.

Winter Squash Soup with Pimenton and Preserved Lemon

During the winter when local produce is nearly non-existent, I buy a lot of my produce from a local Asian supermarket. The owner travels to Chinatown several times a week and brings back fresh Chinese green vegetables, along with daikon radishes, lemongrass, and kabocha squash, a member of the pumpkin family. Kabocha squash is high in fiber, vitamin A and vitamin C, so it’s a healthy addition to any menu. Usually, I prepare kabocha squash using Asian flavors in soup, a main course or dessert, but recently, I came across a recipe for Winter Squash Pimenton Preserved Lemon Soup  that sounded intriguing.

When I spotted this recipe for Winter Squash Pimenton Preserved Lemon Soup  by Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer, publishers of the Canal House cookbook series, it immediately caught my eye. You see, I happened to have a small stash of leftover preserved lemons (from making Dorie Greenspan’s Chicken in a Pot), and a kabocha squash that’s been sitting on my kitchen counter for about a month (they keep a long time, thankfully), so this recipe was the perfect answer to using up both ingredients. I hate throwing food away so when I find myself with odds and ends, I tend to keep an eye out for recipes that can use them up. The recipe also called for Pimenton, a Spanish Paprika that has a smokey quality and typically comes in different levels of heat – sweet, medium and hot.

Simply served as a rustic soup.

I love the idea of cooking and serving the soup directly in a squash “bowl.” The presentation is rustic yet elegant. This past fall, I made a Beet and Apple Soup served in an acorn squash “bowl,” which made for a pretty presentation. This soup was particularly simple since all the ingredients were placed right inside the squash “bowl,” and then roasted in the oven. To serve, the inside flesh of the roasted squash bowl was gently scooped out along with the broth into bowls. This is a nice, light soup, smoky from the pimenton, balanced by the mellow preserved lemons and garlic. Definitely a clean healthy soup.

Today, a group of bloggers are celebrating two women, Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer (yes, this is a woman), who were named in Gourmet Live’s Top 50 Women Game Changers In Food. Although I had read about the Canal House a few years back in the New York Times, I did not know much about these two women until this week.

Ms. Hirsheimer was food and design editor of Metropolitan Home magazine for years, and one of the founding editors of Saveur, where she met Ms. Hamilton, a chef and restaurateur. Ms. Hersheimer has written four cookbooks on her own, and has been the photographer for cookbooks by Jacques Pepin, Lidia Bastianich, Mario Batali and Rick Bayless.

Ms. Hamilton was a chef who worked as an editor and test kitchen director at Martha Stewart Living, Saveur and Cook’s Illustrated. These two women opened up the Canal House studio along the canal in Lambertville, New Jersey, in 2006 as a photo and design studio for cookbooks and magazines to begin with. Their love of gourmet home cooking lead them to self-publish a series of cookbooks, published three times a year.

The Canal House now serves as their workshop, dining room, office, and kitchen. Together, Ms. Hamilton (chef/food stylist/recipe developer/writer/illustrator) and Ms. Hersheimer (photographer/editor/writer) have self-published a series of seven Canal House cookbooks plus a book on Italian food so far which feature their rustic and seasonal cooking that reflect their belief that the “everyday practice of simple cooking and the enjoyment of eating are two of the greatest pleasures in life.”  I would love to get my hands on one or more of the Canal House Cooking volumes. Each volume houses about 75 recipes featuring a single cuisine, e.g., Summer, Fall & Holiday, Winter & Spring, Farm Markets and Gardens, A Taste of Italy, and includes food photographs by Ms. Hersheimer and watercolor illustrations by Ms. Hamilton.

I loved this soup pureed.

Print

Winter Squash Soup with Pimenton and Preserved Lemon Recipe

Adapted from Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer. The original recipe calls for a 8-10 pound pumpkin. Here, I've used a smaller winter squash called Kabocha Squash and have adjusted the ingredient quantities. I enjoyed this soup even more pureed.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 3 -4, depending on the size of the squash

Ingredients

• 1 kabocha squash about 2 pounds
• extra virgin olive oil for brushing
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon pimenton Spanish paprika
• 1 tablespoon preserved lemon rind finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic thinly sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2-3 cups low sodium chicken broth

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put kabocha squash in microwave and cook on high for 1 minute. This will make it easier to cut off the top. Cut out a lid around the stem of the squash. Scrape out and discard the seeds and any stringy parts.
3. Place squash on lightly oiled baking sheet, including the lid. Brush the inside of the squash and the fleshy part of the lid with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper and pimenton. Place lid flesh side down.
4. Add lemon rind, garlic and bay leave to cavity of squash. Fill squash halfway with stock.
5. Roast until flesh is soft when pierced with a sharp knife (be careful not to puncture skin of squash), about 35-45 minutes depending on the size of the squash.
6. Present soup for serving with lid on top of squash.
7. To serve, gently scrape flesh from sides and bottom of squash into bowls. Ladle broth into bowls.

If you’re interested in joining our group as we cook our way through this list of 50 influential women in food, just ask Mary from One Perfect Bite Please stop by and take a look at what the rest of the group made this week in celebration of Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer:

Annie from Most Lovely Things
Linda from There and Back Again
Val from More Than Burnt Toast
Joanne from Eats Well with Others
Taryn from Have Kitchen Will Feed 
Susan from The Spice Garden
Heather from girlichef 
Miranda from Mangoes and Chutney
Mary from One Perfect Bite
Sue from The View from The Great Island
Barbara from Movable Feasts
Nancy from Picadillo
Kathleen from Bake Away With Me
Veronica from My Catholic Kitchen
Mireya of My Healthy Eating Habits
Claudia – Journey of an Italian Cook
Alyce – More Time at the Table
Amrita – Beetle’s Kitchen Escapades

For more recipes from this weekly celebration, check out my 50 Women Game Changers In Food Pinterest Board as well as our group’s collaborative Pinterest Board.

Related Posts

Filter by

Post type

Post Page

Category

vegetarian gluten-free side dishes Clean Eating dips and sauces appetizers Thanksgiving vegan Cooking For Cancer dairy-free soups lunch Liquid/Soft Food Diet Pureed Food Diet Recipes For Foodies Holidays Cancer Chemotherapy Recipes Dysphagia vegetables Asian New Year salads Dinner main courses chicken Slow Cooker low carb Beans/Legumes Pantry Recipe

Sort by

Title Relevance

Baked Zucchini Tomato Summer Squash Goat Cheese Gratin Recipe

2020-06-15 05:00:59

jeanette

18

Roasted Kabocha Squash Dip

2019-11-04 05:00:52

jeanette

18

Red Curry Coconut Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

2019-10-02 05:00:42

jeanette

18

Roasted Butternut Squash Apple Soup Recipe

2018-11-12 05:00:01

jeanette

18

Japanese Braised Kabocha Squash Recipe

2017-01-09 05:00:05

jeanette

18

Butternut Squash Apple Kale Salad Recipe

2016-11-21 05:00:19

jeanette

18

Healthy Slow Cooker Turkey Bolognese Sauce with Spaghetti Squash Recipe

2015-12-22 05:00:31

jeanette

18

Roasted Butternut Squash Cider Soup Recipe

2015-11-19 05:00:00

jeanette

18

Sweet Spiced Roasted Butternut Squash Soup Recipe {Vegan}

2015-10-19 05:00:00

jeanette

18

Three Bean Butternut Squash Vegetarian Chili Recipe

2015-01-05 05:00:00

jeanette

18